"The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.  It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool.  It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."

  A Thinking Problem

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then - just to loosen up and be a part of the crowd.
 
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another and soon I was more than just a  social thinker.

I began to  think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.   Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was  thinking all the time.
 
That was when things began to sour at home.  One evening I turned off the TV  and asked my wife about the meaning of life.  She spent that  night at her mother's.

I began to  think on the job.  I knew that thinking and employment don't mix,  but I couldn't help myself.
 
I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius,   Camus and Kafka.  I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly that we are doing here?"

One day the  boss called me in.  He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem.  If you  don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
 
This gave me a  lot to think about.  I came home early after my conversation with  the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've  been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"  "But Honey,  surely it's not that serious."  "It is serious," she said, her lower lip aquiver.
 
"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any  money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a  fallacious syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to  the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
 
I headed for the library, in the mood for some John Locke.  I roared into the  parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass  doors.

They didn't open.  The library was closed.


To this day, I  believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the  unfeeling glass and whimpering for Emerson, a poster caught my eye,  "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.
 
You probably recognize that line.  It comes from the standard Thinkers  Anonymous poster.

This is why I  am what I am today: a recovering thinker.

I never miss a  TA meeting.  At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.  Life just seemed  easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.  I think the road  to recovery is nearly complete for me.
 

Today I took  the final step... I joined the Democratic  Party.

A Reminder Why Olbermann Is Gone From MSNBC.

Statism' assembly line

THE TAX SYSTEM EXPLAINED IN BEER

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100...
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. 
The fifth would pay $1. 
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do..
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men ? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving). 
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving). 
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving). 
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.  
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible

Cash-Paying Patients are Such a Bother 

 When is the last time you paid cash for something and the seller made you fill out a signed, witnessed, and dated form explaining that you were expected to pay in full at the time of purchase immediately after you had signed a credit card slip authorizing payment for the full price of the service that was about to be rendered?

Never? You obviously haven’t tried to pay cash for health care lately.
Called things like “Self-pay financial policy and waivers” or “uninsured patient information documents,” the forms treat self-pay patients like chumps who must be reminded of their responsibilities. Even if you have just written a check or run your credit card for the full quoted price of a discrete routine service, you will still be required to sign and date a witnessed document saying that you know you are responsible for paying for services.
At HCA facilities, the Patient Information Document helpfully explains that

• the “balance due on the account is expected to be paid in full at the time of service,”
• “if you are unable to pay the discounted account balance in full, we will work with you to establish monthly payment arrangements,”
• if “you cannot establish monthly payment arrangements, we will assist you with applying for Medicaid assistance,”
• “if you quality for a charity discount based upon Federal Poverty Guidelines, your account will be considered paid in full.”

How HCA determines whether someone’s income is below Federal Poverty Guidelines must remain, for the moment, one of life’s little mysteries. Do people who have just lost their jobs and technically have zero income qualify for free hospitalization?
The “Self-Pay Financial Policy and Waiver” form for a group of physical therapy clinics explains that its cash pay clinic fees will be reduced “from our regular commercial fee schedule to $80.” Although the clinics say they are always willing to take your money, paying patients must stipulate that they understand that “payments received after the date of service will be accepted but no reduction of fees will be made” and that “no forms will be produced now or in the future for you or us to submit for insurance billing.”
In short: Pay cash, eliminate collections overhead, and get reduced prices.
Real health care reform will have arrived when cash is the norm for routine services, and those who pay cash are treated as valued customers rather than as potential deadbeats.

White House - Dem Meltdown

Please read and forward ..Obama unfit for command

 November 4, 2010 -- Obama conducting "reign of terror" against suspected White House leakers

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President Obama was urged by the few White House insiders from whom he still takes advice to leave the country on his ten-day Asian trip, his longest trip abroad since becoming president, in order to not inflict any more damage to the Democratic Party in the wake of one of the worst electoral defeats for the party of an incumbent president in recent history.
According to sources close to the White House, who put themselves in great danger by even talking to members of the media, the plans to have Obama leave for a visit to India, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan are an attempt to get Obama out of the country while top Democrats can sort through the political disaster created for the party by Obama's increasingly detached-from-reality presidency.

Virtual political guerrilla warfare has broken out between Obama's inner circle on one hand and senior Democratic officials, including outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party strategist James Carville, former Demcratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, and, behind-the-scenes, Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton, on the other.
Top Democrats are still reeling from Obama's bizarre behavior at a $7500-a-plate fundraiser at a stately mansion at Brown University in Rhode Island on October 25. The fundraiser, organized by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was supposed to highlight Democratic Party unity. However, while Obama endorsed Democratic House candidate David Cicilline for outgoing Representative Patrick Kennedy's seat, the president failed to endorse Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio over Republican-turned-independent former Senator Lincoln Chafee.

Obama's lack of an endorsement for a Democrat over a former Republican prompted Caprio to tell a radio show host that Obama "could take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I'm concerned."

Later that day, Obama briefly appeared at the fundraiser at Brown University, where Democratic loyalists paid $7500 to hear Obama speak, but departed after only twenty minutes, telling the assembled guests that he had to go back to the White House to "tuck in my daughters, walk the dog, and 'scoop the poop.'"
The Democratic faithful were appalled and shocked at Obama's quick departure and one of the three reasons he gave for it: to scoop up dog turds as if the President of the United States actually performs such tasks with a phalanx of White House staff and Secret Service agents at his disposal.

Vice President Biden knows too well about Obama's lack of attention to his daily tasks of being president.
The details of the fiasco at Brown soon were conveyed to Biden by his two old Democratic Senate colleagues from Rhode Island: Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse.
Biden was not amused about Obama's dissing of the Democrats in Rhode Island.
A week later, Chafee defeated Caprio for the Rhode Island governorship, thanks largely to Obama's less-than-neutral stance in cutting a secret deal to support Chafee against Caprio.
White House leaks about the ineffectiveness of Obama's presidency are expandng beyond the revelations attributed to a former high-level Obama administration insider and which have been reported by a blogger named "Ulsterman."
Some White House staffers have described a "reign of terror" in the White House over continued leaks and a troika of leadership that is making decisions without any input from the president.
The troika reportedly consists of First Lady Michelle Obama, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, and the president's mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, who resides in the White House.
Not to be deterred, some White House staffers have sought out journalists and have arranged to meet them at nearby Starbuck's cafes to discretely convey to them inside information about the current disarray within the Obama administration.
Some staffers have personally born the brunt of Obama's temper and witnessed his extreme narcissistic behavior.
WMR has also learned from White House sources that Obama is taking presciption anxiety medication.

Vice President Biden, under intense pressure from some Democratic Party officials and Cabinet members to invoke Article 25, Section 4 of the Constitution and have Obama
temporarily or permanently removed as president because of his mental incapacity to fulfill his constitutional oath as president is reluctant to take such drastic action.
Biden feels that the country would "become unglued" after such action and he doesn't want to be the one who would be responsible for "picking up the pieces,"
according to a source who works within Biden's office.

Some staffers have said on deep background that the revelations by the ex-White House official to "Ulsterman" are not even half of the story about what is actually occurring in the White House.

However, Biden and other Democratic and adminstration do believe that if Obama were to display some of the same reckless behavior publicly as many
White House personnel have witnessed privately, there may be wide support for enactment of the provisions of the 25th Amendment.
Such a public display by Obama that could trigger succession action might involve a public outburst, including the use of foul language or a statement that Obama
believes there is a conspiracy against him.

On October 5, Obama was addressing Fortune magazine's "Most Powerful Women" summit in Washington, DC.
During the middle of Obama's speech, the presidential seal fell off the podium.
Publicly, Obama took the incident as a joke, but WMR has learned from White House insiders that Obama went on a tirade after the incident,
accusing White House staffers of purposely not anchoring the seal to the podium.
The White House supplies all the podiums and seals at all presidential addresses and the seal is usually well-anchored with four screws affixed to the podium.
Obama reportedly "freaked out" and accused White House staffers of engaging in a conspiracy against him.
The presidential tirade over such a trivial matter was not lost on senior administration officials who have witnessed
Obama's lackadaisical behavior during the consideration of much weightier issues, for example, the war in Afghanistan.

Although some observers believe African-Americans would react negatively to the invocation of the 25th Amendment,
WMR has learned that members of the Congressional Black Caucus would reluctantly go along with such a move.
Many in their ranks, including outgoing House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) were outraged over Obama's lack of interest in Haiti after that nation's devastating earthquake.
For many black caucus members, it was their first indication that there was something very wrong with Obama and his grasp of reality.

With Obama intent on running for re-election and seriously considering sending White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) to replace former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the potential Democratic challengers to Obama in 2012 are beginning to stir.

WMR has learned that former DNC chairman Howard Dean is seriously considering a challenge to Obama as is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
who will reportedly depart Foggy Bottom after Defense Secretary Robert Gates leaves his position, possibly in January.
Several top Democrats consider Obama's chances to keep the White House in 2012 as slim and they find it fanciful that White House policy adviser
David Axelrod is moving back to Chicago to work on Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, an effort many Democratic officials find a "fool's errand."

Obama also is disengaged from the plight of his former Senate Democratic colleagues in the wake of their near loss of the Senate with a much-reduced majority.
There is pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to step down as Majority Leader.
However, Charles Schumer (D-NY), who has been mentioned as a replacement, reportedly has let it be known that he will not carry Obama's water as Majority Leader
and may not want the job after all.

The Majority Whip is Dick Durbin (D-IL) but he is seen as part of the Obama Chicago Mafia and almost every Democratic senator agrees on one thing:
they do not want Durbin as their Majority Leader.

Obama, the titular head of the Democratic Party, has refused to weigh in with any effective leadership as congressional Democrats pick up the pieces and lick their wounds.

Meanwhile, a team of ex-CIA officers are traveling the globe assembling a dossier of documents on Obama's past, including his education, passport, travel, and residency records.
The team has scoured Kenya, Indonesia, Pakistan, and other countries collecting documents that are not already mantained in the CIA's own files on Obama's past.

There is a possibility, according to WMR's sources, that any "smoking gun" documents may be released while Obama is in Asia in order to elicit a public and,
perhaps, irrational enough response from the president to prompt the public to begin raising questions about Obama's suitability for office.
Such an incident would make it easier for Biden to begin the succession process that was previously considered when President Richard Nixon was drinking heavily
and taking prescription medication during the final days of his administration,
twice during the Ronald Reagan administration -- after the attempted assassination and in 1987 when he demonstrated early stages of Alzheimer's Disease,
and during the Bill Clinton administration, when Clinton's self-destructive sexual antics had Vice President Al Gore considering taking similar steps
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waynemadsenreport.com
Wayne Madsen (Washington)